One GLONASS satellite withdrawn for maintenance

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. Satellite No 732 of Russia’s GLONASS global satellite navigation system has been withdrawn for maintenance, the information and analytical center of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said on its website on Tuesday.

"According to the GLONASS Control Center, the Glonass-M spacecraft No 732 was withdrawn for technical maintenance on February 2 at 16:30 pm, Moscow time," the report says.

In early December 2014, experts registered the satellite’s malfunction. The "unhealthy" signs were recorded during an hour in the ephemerides (coordinates) of the Glonass-M satellite No 732, located at the 23rd orbital slot of the GLONASS system’s third orbital plane. However, the satellite became operational again within a day.

The satellite was launched into orbit on March 2 and commissioned on March 28, 2010.

The Global Navigation Satellite System network, which was put into operation in 1993, is regarded as Russia’s answer to GPS (Global Positioning System) of the United States. The network provides real-time positioning and speed data for surface, sea and airborne objects.